-
By:
Besarte Elshani
- April 9, 2026 21:22 am
- Share to:
The title is a kind of warning. The exhibition “Traces of Graphics” resembles a kind of excavation of Albanian art treasures, bringing out works that have not been seen in public until now. Curated by Genc Rezniqi, the exhibition is unique and special due to the fact that many of the works have been premiered although they date back to the late 50s. Some are debuting before the public as graphic artists like never before. They are prominent names who have marked Albanian art
The exhibition “Traces of Graphics” at the Pristina Art Gallery is a deep journey through time, memory, and artistic identity. It comes as a retrospective of graphics as a medium from its founding in Kosovo to the present, giving voice to a tradition that has never died out, but has only been transformed.
Curated by Genc Rezniqi, the exhibition is unique and special due to the fact that many of the works are being shown for the first time, although they date back to the late 50s. Some are making their debut before the public as graphic artists, as never before. The prominent artist, pioneer of modernism in these parts, Nysret Salihamixhiqi, who died in October 2011, is an exemplary man.
Artist and professor Adem Rusinovci said that many of the works were a surprise to him.
"This is a very big surprise for me too, to be honest, because there are works that, despite my age and the work and acquaintance I have with almost all the exhibited artists, there are works that I am seeing for the first time. Seeing the work of Nysret Sahihamixhqi, who is from the late 50s, speaks volumes about a quality, in this case regarding the issue of graphics. I think that the highlight of the entire exhibition is the work of Agim Salihu. For me, he is a very contemporary artist that every country would be lucky to have," Rusinovci said.
He said that in the retrospective of graphics since its establishment in Kosovo until now, the quality of the works is remarkable.
also
"Kosovo..." with illustrations that give another dimension to monuments
"In Kosovo, the style of contemporary art was mainly worked on. It is surprising that in 1958, the works of Salihamidzic, Feri and others correspond to a contemporary art that is still being worked on in many countries around the world today. It is surprising that in that year, when the Academy was not even open in Pristina, nor the Higher Pedagogical School, artists of, I can freely say, European proportions came to us. This is a great pleasure," Rusinovci continued.
As the title suggests, the trace is one of the main characteristics of the medium of graphics. Beyond the image, it has come as an engraved story, as a thought printed on the white surface.
This exhibition featured the works of artists Adem Dërmaku, Agim Salihu, Engjëll Berisha, Fatmir Krypa, Fatmir Zajmi, Fevzi Tyfekçi, Flaka Haliti, Gani Llalloshi, Gjelosh Gjokaj and Hamdi Terziqi.
The textures and effects of the works are each unique from each other. What each has in common is the art of contrast. The light-shadow ratio has created visual tension. Whiteness is not a lack of color in this case, but a powerful language in its own right, although many of the artists have broken the rule.
On the walls of the gallery are also the works of Hysni Krasniqi, Karmon Fan Ferri, Matej Rodiqi, Muslim Mulliq, Nysret Salihamixhiqi, Rexhep Ferri, Shaip Çitaku, Shemsedin Kasapolli, Shyqri Gjurkaj, Shyqri Nimani, Simon Shiroka, Tomislav Trifiqi, Xhevdet Xhafa, Ymer Shaqiri and Zoran Jovanovic.
There, every stroke of the work with a pencil or other practice is like a fragment of history fixed on the surface of the work.
The exhibition does not have a curatorial text explaining it. But curator Genc Rezniqi said that there are 38 works dating from 1956 to the creativity of recent years by artists of the current generation.
also
"Roots" with characters who no longer belong to the trunk
"Since the post-war period, it is the first exhibition of graphics and of this type in this format with such a significant number of artists who have dealt with this medium. It has not been easy at all, it has been very challenging. Nearly 90 percent of the works that have been exhibited have been previously unseen. Some of them are taken from the collection of the National Gallery, some from the artists and most from private collectors who have lent them to us for this exhibition," he said.
He mentioned the techniques used for the works: among them authorial, linocut, aquatint, copperplate, lithographic stone.
The exhibition was organized by the Association of Visual Artists of Kosovo, led by artist Kamuran Goranci. He considered this exhibition to be very special.
"This exhibition is special because there are works that have not been seen for maybe 40 or 30 years by the general public and also by artists. For example, there is the case where I have never seen Muslim Mulliq who has worked in graphics at such a high level. Then there is Gjelosh Gjokaj. Here we have the constellation of artists who have left their mark on the graphics of Kosovo, but also outside of it. That is why it has this uniqueness and it has been very well received by artists," he said.
The Director of Culture in the Municipality of Pristina, Sibel Halimi, told the public that in the works there are not only forms and compositions. According to her, there is also interruption and continuity, oblivion and return, as well as the presence of the past in the present.
"In this exhibition, the participating artists come as bearers of these traces. Each with their own visual language, with the experience, memory and sensitivity that shapes them. They are not only authors of works, but also mediators of a tradition that continues to be written. Through graphic techniques, they create spaces, the individual and the collective intertwine, where personal history meets the common one. These artists, with their different approaches, expand the meaning of graphics as a practice and as a reflection, inviting us to read not only the image, but also the process, time and trace that lies behind it," said Halimi.
In her speech at the opening of the exhibition, she said that "graphics is not just an artistic discipline, it is a way of thinking about existence because every trace is an act, an intervention in the void, a proof that someone has been, has touched, has left a mark."
also
The treasury of Kosovo's art as a dialogue of times and revival together with the Gallery
The exhibition in this spirit also goes strongly to the place where it was opened – the Art Gallery in Pristina, which was solemnly reopened at the end of last year. Since the late 70s, when the Art Gallery in Pristina was opened, it would flourish and become a space for the exhibition of pioneers of visual art in Kosovo. It occupies one of the spaces of the Youth Palace. After the last war, that institution became the National Gallery of Kosovo. Founded in 1979, the Gallery would come as a necessity after the establishment of the Academy of Arts in 1973. From that time until 1990, the country's artists would promote their works and receive awards. In the last decade of the last century, Kosovo's art would be institutionally silenced. Exhibitions would be interrupted as a result of the political situation when Albanians lived under the violent Serbian regime. The exhibition "Traces of Graphics" displays the spirit of graphics from its inception to the present day. The Albanian creative spirit, as a kind of document where every artist has left traces that are not erased, but deepen with time.
© KOHA Daily
